“Your cousin?”
“Aye. She was your first wife’s maid. We were all set to bring her home, kenning that she wasnae happy, that she was afraid. When we got there all we found was her body after ye were done with her. E’er since that day my family has sworn to make ye pay despite the fact that they are poor and powerless. Weel, ye may soon die for other reasons than the rape and murder of a wee lass of barely fifteen, but it will do. Aye, it will do verra fine indeed.”
“Weel, that was interesting,” murmured Tormand as the men that had come with Simon and Gowan began to take the prisoners away.
“He kills like a child who sees a toy he wants and just takes it,” Simon said. “Henry sees what he wants, and if someone stands in the way, he kills them.”
“Aye and that is his madness.”
“And my brothers are alive?”
“Verra much so but it took telling them that Henry was about to meet his much delayed fate to get them to come out of hiding. Ye will see them soon. Best go with the others and take the prisoners to the king.” He nodded toward the small group of men from Lochancorrie who were talking to Wallace.
“Save for them. Gowan didnae think they were any trouble and left them for ye to see to. Let the others who so hastily dropped their swords escape as weel. Good mon, Gowan.”
“A verra good mon,” Simon murmured, “who is eyeing my place as the king’s hound.”
“I heard. Ye willnae be able to do it as ye have been for ye are now a laird. There is a clan and lands that need you.”
“But will the people of Lochancorrie want another from that family of brutes and madmen to rule over them?”
“Ye arenae your father or Henry.”
Simon prayed he was not, but a knot of fear had formed in his belly. He instructed Wallace to take the Lochancorrie men to his home while he went to the king along with the prisoners. Tormand ambled along at his side and Simon knew it was so that he could take Ilsabeth with him when she was free.
That was for the best, he told himself. He was about to turn his brother over to the king, a traitor and a madman. He had three other brothers who might be untainted but he could not know until he met them. He had had a child with his brother’s wife and that child had been murdered. No matter how much Henry deserved his fate, it was going to be Simon who handed him over to it, so he would soon have his own brother’s blood on his hands. There was so much wrong with him and his family he could not see making any woman accept him, especially the one who had suffered so much from the crimes of his own brother.
He had to let her go, he decided. Had to let her find a man who was not weighted down as he was.
Or a man who might well have the seed of madness in him, a seed that could be given to any child they might have together. Nor could he make her turn her back on her family, who would undoubtedly hate him for his family’s part in causing them to spend the last few weeks hiding as soldiers ransacked their home.
“Ye have a look on your face, friend, that tells me ye are thinking hard,” said Tormand. “Why do I think that is a verra bad idea?”
“ ‘Tis always best to think things over when one is about to hand one’s mad brother over to the king to be tried, convicted, and executed. I am about to stain my hands with my brother’s blood. And ye are about to take Ilsabeth back to her family where she belongs.”
“Jesu, I kenned I wasnae going to like how ye were thinking.”
Chapter 17
Her cell was seventeen paces wide and one and thirty paces deep. It was rather roomy for a prison cell, she thought, as she paced back toward the cell door. Ilsabeth knew the battle with Henry would not end with some quick, simple sword fight, but she did think it had been too long since Simon, Gowan, and the others had finally gone looking for Simon’s brother. She certainly doubted it was civilized debate that was keeping everyone away for so very long.
Despite her efforts not to put Simon and Henry together in her mind, as brothers, Ilsabeth found she could not fully control her own thoughts. Simon and Henry shared a look about them and she had to wonder if any of Simon’s other siblings had that look as well. Perhaps she would look into his bloodlines, she mused, and hastily shook the idea away. Simon had to know his own bloodlines, had to know which relatives, if any, he had who might shelter his younger brothers. And his brothers had to have heard at least one tale about Simon yet they had made no effort to get to know him, talk to him, or even just go to Simon’s house to see what he looked like.
She did not understand families like that. Ilsabeth knew Henry had to have been a source of the poison that had torn apart the family, but why had the ones Henry tormented and hurt never banded together against him? It made no sense to her. It was as if the other three brothers had escaped and made no effort to see if Simon had managed to do the same.
“Bastards,” she muttered as she began to stomp back and forth across her cell, pleased to have some target to hurl her anger at. “Simon has been a king’s mon for years. It wouldnae have taken his younger brothers much effort to just open their eyes and look about a little to find him.”
“But we did.”
Ilsabeth was surprised that the screech that escaped her had not brought every guard in the area rushing to her cell. Then she remembered that every guard around, except for a few hand-chosen ones left to keep the king surrounded and protected, was hunting down Henry Innes of Lochancorrie and stupid Walter. She felt a pinch of fear over the fact that she was unguarded and there was a stranger there, but calmed herself with the knowledge that she was safe where she was.
“Who are ye?” she demanded, edging close enough to the cell door to get a better look yet staying out of reach of whoever was standing there watching her.
There were three of them. The tallest of the three leaned against the bars of her cell and replied, “I am Malcolm Innes. This is my younger brother, Kenneth.” He pointed to the one standing by his right shoulder. “And this is my youngest brother, Ruari,” he added, and pointed to the young man standing on his left. “I believe ye are acquainted with our brother Simon and, sad to say, our eldest brother, Henry.”
“How did ye come here? Now? Today instead of years ago?”
“We have come because your cousin Sir Tormand Murray told us that Henry will soon be gone. He was why we stayed in hiding. He tried to kill us.”
